@PhilW - hope EmilPaige and 3DLust get a chance to see what an amazing job you did with it. Could be a promo! Camera seems a little far removed for my taste, but that may just be the forum preview.

@Bunyip - love the skull throne fantasy pinup. Would echo others on zoom level, but again might be forum preview.

@UnifiedBrain - thanks for the reminder on the entry limit. Think I will reserve my cave project for the PC contest if I can find a caveman/cavwoman item in the PC stuff. Better to reserve a third project for something more closely linked to Halloween.

Off topic.

Yo, Aussies. Why don't you make a bigger fuss for Halloween? A neighbor of mine has to be in Australia for business over the holiday, and she told me that the folks she will be working with don't celebrate Halloween. I could understand Halloween being minimal in most of the world, but I thought Australia had a bunch of the same Celtic Samhain festival revelers that we have in North America. Lets get a devilish emoji for that.

@Diomede, as for Halloween, we look on it as an American thing which is invading our country - keep that to yourself. So Halloween is hand in Hand with McDonalds Registered Trademark.

I think the Irish that got dragged out here by the English as convicts were too busy trying to stay alive at first to worry about being Pagans ;)

EDIT: Oh here's something

In my 60 years of being an Aussie, I have never seen Halloween as being high on my list of things to celebrate, even though celebrating is high on my list of things to do.

Most Aussies have come to know about Halloween from the many Hollywood movies that include the Halloween celebration in their movie script.

So Aussies have generally come to view Halloween as a particularly North American celebration that like Thanksgiving and Independence Day, has no real relevance to us 'down-under'. Even more so, by refusing to celebrate Halloween, many of us see ourselves as rejecting a US cultural influence that seems by stealth, to be overtaking much of our independence and home-grown culture.

So it's kind-of-weird to now realise that Halloween is actually a Celtic tradition that was embraced by the USA but not by Australia, even though Australian culture has lovingly embraced most Celtic traditions.

See, at a particularly formative time in Australia's history, the then monarch of Great Britain and Australia, Queen Victoria, introduced a strict Victorian social code that among other things, called for a deep disdain for all things that might be perceived as indulgent - like celebrating the Celtic Halloween.

The Victorian backlash against Halloween just happened to coincide with the colonization of Australia but was at a time that was well after the American colonies had broken away from the British crown.

So it appears to be just an accident of history as to why Australia did not embrace or celebrate Halloween. Methinks that the push back against perceived American cultural influences, kids wandering the streets at night and the high-sugar rewards, continue to keep Halloween from gaining mainstream popularity in Australia - despite its beloved Celtic origins.

Thanks for the link, HW. Very interesting. Apparently, Queen Victoria inspired more lasting virtue than the Puritans. Sort of goes against the general reputation of Australians, though. Can definitely see the point of the anti-sugar folks. And Stezza, I'll let her know about the Cricket. She is a sports fan..

I now return you to your regularly scheduled WIPs. Nothing new to post from me, yet. "Art Frahm in a kilt" is still on my agenda. Have thrown together a quick elevator set, but still need a formal top for G3M to go with the kilt. Do you think it would be better to have a one-man scene with his drawers around his ankles (and celery), or multiple guys in kilts (and holding celery), only one of whom has his drawers around is ankles while the other guys look at him like he is not supposed to be wearing anything underneath the kilt?

So here you go. Lukas G3M of the Highlands in a variety of render formats.

I used Carrara's dynamic hair modeler to make a classic male part-on-the-left style. It was made on a hair cap to fit Vyusur's Lukas character for Misty's G3M in Carrara item. I saved it to the browser so the dynamic hair can be used for some renders. I then used Philemot's plugin that converts dynamic hair to obj, remembering to reduce display mesh and hair width. I saved that to the browser so that I have a prop hair that matches the dynamic hair. I had to reverse the hair normals for the NPR render. Not sure if that is a general thing or just came up this time.

I happen to own the clothing set Casual Style for G3M. In Studio, I used Edit : Figure : Rigging and then converted triax weightmap to blended. I saved that as a figure support asset. Did that for the shirt, vest, tie, and shoes.

I modeled a kilt (actually modified the Roman warrior uniform that I made for a previous project). Need some socks and "that thing that hangs in front."

Do you think it would be better to have a one-man scene with his drawers around his ankles (and celery), or multiple guys in kilts (and holding celery), only one of whom has his drawers around is ankles while the other guys look at him like he is not supposed to be wearing anything underneath the kilt?

I think it would be better to have a couple of ladies in the elevator. One is pointing, and the caption is "I knew it!"

Do you think it would be better to have a one-man scene with his drawers around his ankles (and celery), or multiple guys in kilts (and holding celery), only one of whom has his drawers around is ankles while the other guys look at him like he is not supposed to be wearing anything underneath the kilt?

I think it would be better to have a couple of ladies in the elevator. One is pointing, and the caption is "I knew it!"

Hi there! Wonderful challenge! I'm working on this image of Liv Tyler as Bond Girl.
I've always seen Liv Tyler as a perfect Pin Up girl (just watch her new lingerie campaign to see what i'm talking)
Hope you like it. Great works everyone else!

And here is a color version. This uses the GMIC paint filter and adjusts slightly with a native Carrara Toon III render (but with line effect set to zero). I keep changing my mind on whether to use the black and white or the color version.

EDIT

Below is a color version that composites Carrara's native NPR at 50% with the GMIC paint. I think I like this best so far. Need to address the white flecks, some of which are due to my NPR thickness settings, which is fine, but I think some are due to having the back of some normals visible in the woman's hair,

Below is a color version that composites Carrara's native NPR at 50% with the GMIC paint. I think I like this best so far. Need to address the white flecks, some of which are due to my NPR thickness settings, which is fine, but I think some are due to having the back of some normals visible in the woman's hair,

Excellent work here Diomede! You've discovered a setting that looks very Frahm-like, and pinup-like in general. Gotta remember this one down the road, thanks!

Wonderful quality in characters and scene setup. Here are a few extra (unsolicited) suggestions:

1. Fix the reversed hair in post. You can do it in Carrara, but what a hassle!

2. The kilt looks too much like a skirt to me. Maybe it needs to be darker and more tartan-like (partly to match colors with his top). Are you going to add the pouch on the front?

3. His facial expression is not adding much to the mood. More shock, maybe?

4. His celery needs to be sticking out a bit further. Hey, get your mind out of the gutter!

Hi there! Wonderful challenge! I'm working on this image of Liv Tyler as Bond Girl. I've always seen Liv Tyler as a perfect Pin Up girl (just watch her new lingerie campaign to see what i'm talking) Hope you like it. Great works everyone else!

And here is a color version. This uses the GMIC paint filter and adjusts slightly with a native Carrara Toon III render (but with line effect set to zero). I keep changing my mind on whether to use the black and white or the color version.

EDIT

Below is a color version that composites Carrara's native NPR at 50% with the GMIC paint. I think I like this best so far. Need to address the white flecks, some of which are due to my NPR thickness settings, which is fine, but I think some are due to having the back of some normals visible in the woman's hair,

Below is a color version that composites Carrara's native NPR at 50% with the GMIC paint. I think I like this best so far. Need to address the white flecks, some of which are due to my NPR thickness settings, which is fine, but I think some are due to having the back of some normals visible in the woman's hair,

Sweet! Now I gotta get you (...and Not just You!!!) into working at giving those darned hands and their fingers some sort of natural pose! ;)

Some folks find it easier to buy hand-pose packs for the target figure. If the pack is made by someone whom really understands hand poses, it might be a decent way to begin - but never be put-off to grab those individual joints and work with them!